"Theft Concept" will always be known bestby the person that had the idea stolen from them.
I was standing right behind a customer and his girlfriend (they didn't know that I was there) as they were seeing my video in my first room as she turned to him and said:"You could do that down at The Club Friday night!"
An over-weight young man in a very expensive suit with shiney shoes has to drive 3 hours away from Chicago to Steal an idea from the likes of me!?
P A T H E T I C...
I could only Hope that someone in his audience had already been here and had seen my video first.
I didn't get "$20 from him, maybe $5 admision to my house..

the only reason I haven't purchased the effect are the reviews on here saying they never received items from the company - the last thing I want is to buy something and not get it. They're the only company I could find making the effect - hence why I'd like to try to make it myself. Not attempting to "steal" anything.

Carnage, then if that is the case. I would contact a reputable vendor like Frightprops, Distortions, or DC props and tell them the effect you want (dont mention who makes it) and ask them to put together a set up for you. That way they will approach the concept in a different way and possibly add a vendor for a similar effect. And If you are asking how to replicate a companies product, then you are ripping them off. Im not saying dont do it, Im saying you should send them $20.
Allen H

Look up monster tronics. Although tacky as all hell, I think they did a custom setup for Ethan from Hundred Acres Manor in Pittsburgh.

Monstertronics has never done anything for us.

We used a HE Suicide Scenario for 2 years. It's a simple prop. It's amazing a company can get so cheap that they can screw up such a simple prop. We were sent mostly used parts, the few parts that were new were of shite quality. The airhose was dry rotten, it blew apart the second I plugged it in to a (regulated) air line. The speaker wire that they were using to connect the switch to the controller looked like it had been laying in a field for 10 years, insulation literally falling off of it, looks to be UV damaged. The controller was dirty and had globs of paint on it. The air tank appeared to also be used, that or it had set on a shelf for the last 5 years. The check valve and power supply, while new, were of crap quality. The power supply failed shortly after install and the check valve leaked like a sieve. This isn't the first terrible prop we've ever got from them, but it will be the last!

Anyhow, we stopped doing the suicide scenario because it's a cheap shock scare. I came up with a better plan this year and it worked great. NightmareAftershock, if you're referring to the setup that we had this year, that was all custom built by me. The controller is a Prop1 using 3 POT's, small 12v pump to feed the charge tube, 2 solenoids, 1 for the water valve (so it doesn't blow back into the reservoir) and one for the air blast. I spent more time learning how to program the Prop1 than it took me to build the rest of the controller setup or mechanics of it. I'm not a huge fan of the Prop1's, but they have their place for very custom stuff where I want realtime analog controls.

I should clarify, the setup I designed this year is not a suicide scenario rip off. It doesn't work or portray anything like the HE SS kit. The only two things they have in common is that there is an actor (our new set actually requires two actors) and it's a water spray type of prop. I didn't want anyone to think I was ripping off HE's scenario and rebuilt it to be better.

Though, that leads me to bring up what Allen said about sending them $20 for the idea. I actually disagree with that, at least in this particular case. I'm really tired of vendors showing one thing at Transworld, MHC, etc, then delivering something entirely different. Or alternately, delivering a prop that might last for 3 nights (Scare Factory and Poison Props both come to mind. Poison Props actually wins for shortest-time-lived prop. It didn't make it through three full nights of *light* patron traffic on our sneak preview weekends two seasons ago. But I'm getting off topic). If these vendors can manage to produce a product that is "As seen at TW!", I wouldn't have any problems simply buying it. HE is an example. If we see something that they made that we like, damn skippy I'm going to produce it in house. If they would manufacture it to work out of the box, let alone last, I would have no problems buying from them. But they don't, so I don't think they deserve a dime. I'm not saying that we have done that, I'm just throwing out an example.

Another example might be Hellevators. Fright Props makes them, so do quite a few other vendors. Who gets the $20 "design commission"? I made ours in house and honestly, short of Disney, I think ours are the best out there. Mine trio of Hellevators do things that no one else in the industry that provides them as a turn-key package can do. Just throwing it out there

Are built intentionally "Light" to cut down on possible shipping expenses? This could be a very needed consideration.
Of course the things I build here never have to "travel", so I build them thick, heavy, cause I got this big pile of free, heavy steel a few years ago!
I could sell a prop for $2,000 and shipping would be $3,500 more!
but it would NEVER break nor bend, but if it fell on you!

I should clarify, the setup I designed this year is not a suicide scenario rip off. It doesn't work or portray anything like the HE SS kit. The only two things they have in common is that there is an actor (our new set actually requires two actors) and it's a water spray type of prop. I didn't want anyone to think I was ripping off HE's scenario and rebuilt it to be better.

Though, that leads me to bring up what Allen said about sending them $20 for the idea. I actually disagree with that, at least in this particular case. I'm really tired of vendors showing one thing at Transworld, MHC, etc, then delivering something entirely different. Or alternately, delivering a prop that might last for 3 nights (Scare Factory and Poison Props both come to mind. Poison Props actually wins for shortest-time-lived prop. It didn't make it through three full nights of *light* patron traffic on our sneak preview weekends two seasons ago. But I'm getting off topic). If these vendors can manage to produce a product that is "As seen at TW!", I wouldn't have any problems simply buying it. HE is an example. If we see something that they made that we like, damn skippy I'm going to produce it in house. If they would manufacture it to work out of the box, let alone last, I would have no problems buying from them. But they don't, so I don't think they deserve a dime. I'm not saying that we have done that, I'm just throwing out an example.

Another example might be Hellevators. Fright Props makes them, so do quite a few other vendors. Who gets the $20 "design commission"? I made ours in house and honestly, short of Disney, I think ours are the best out there. Mine trio of Hellevators do things that no one else in the industry that provides them as a turn-key package can do. Just throwing it out there

I'm SO excited to head back up there again in January. I talked to Ethan on the phone last night and funny enough from just his description I used your EXACT words. "Sounds like some Disney shit to me." hahahahaha. The emergency button setup, the track system, color coded wires/tubing, everything. Sounds too cool. He also told me you guys did a cattle bolt gun or something instead of the standard suicide setup. When I was up there in January I saw the regular suicide setup but that was when Ethan was still ripping out the factory and getting ready to start on Brine. When I get up there I have to take a ride on those things!!!!